William Harrel – Journalisthttp://commtechwatch.com
Keeping up with communications created on computers.Thu, 10 Aug 2017 17:52:11 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5180-Degree Panoramic View, Intelligent Zooming, 4K Video and More with the PanCast 2 Webcamhttp://commtechwatch.com/?p=3013
http://commtechwatch.com/?p=3013#respondThu, 10 Aug 2017 17:50:36 +0000http://commtechwatch.com/?p=3013Logitech’s Brio 4K Webcam briefly had bragging rights as the maker of the only 4K Webcam, but Altia Systems’ Panacast 2 has changed that—and then some. Perhaps to sophisticated be called a mere “webcam,” — Altia calls it a “camera system” — it’s $1,000 price tag relegates it to businesses, and the most dedicated video conferencing consumers. This is a webcam on steroids

It promises a 180-degree coverage area with automatic panoramic zooming and exceptionally clear video. It’s also small and elegant in appearance. Unfortunately, the zooming feature costs extra, as does a very slick add-on called Whiteboard that automatically centers on a whiteboard during, well, a whiteboard presentation. As our Panacast 2 Camera System review will show, this gadget is high-tech and impressive — but by the time you get it decked out the way you want it, it could cost you about $1,350. For most individuals, (and even most companies) this is the kind of investment that requires serious consideration.

]]>http://commtechwatch.com/?feed=rss2&p=30130Sharp Snapshots and Serious Smartphone Integration with Kodak’s Photo Printer Dockhttp://commtechwatch.com/?p=3011
http://commtechwatch.com/?p=3011#respondThu, 10 Aug 2017 17:29:27 +0000http://commtechwatch.com/?p=3011Dedicated photo printers like the $149.90-MSRP Kodak Photo Printer Dock we’re reviewing here today fill a niche, and imaging giant Kodak has played a prominent role in the snapshot-printer market. These relatively small machines that do nothing except churn out snapshots—and often one-size-only snapshots—are not for everyone. But their popularity, as suggested by the fact that most of the major printer makers offer at least one (the Canon Selphy CP1200, part of the long-running Selphy line; the tiny HP Sprocket; and Epson’s 2015 PictureMate 400 Personal Photo Lab, for example) is undeniable.

The appeal of single-minded machines like these isn’t only that they make churning out relatively high-quality photos on demand simple, but most of them—like the Kodak Dock—are small and fairly easy to take with you. Not only are these gadgets easy to use, but replenishing consumables is a snap (though it is, as you’ll see in our discussion later on, somewhat expensive). If you print a lot of photos, dedicated photo printers have some distinct convenience advantages over full-size photo-centric inkjet printers and inkjet all-in-ones (AIOs).

Until fairly recently, though, these machines were designed to work with your desktop PC or on the go with your laptop. As printers in general evolved to become more mobile-device-friendly, with features such as Wi-Fi Direct and mobile apps, so have dedicated photo printers. HP’s Sprocket, for example, is designed to print wallet-size (2×3-inch) photos primarily from social-media sites and your mobile device’s photo albums via Bluetooth.

The Kodak Dock takes mobile connectivity to its next logical step. In addition to connecting to your computing devices via USB, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct, the Kodak Dock allows you to dock your smartphone physically with the printer. As you’ll see in the section coming up next, after docking your smartphone up top, it becomes the printer’s control panel, which is actually quite the slick idea.

This is not to say, though, that the Kodak Dock isn’t without its flaws. For example, it can print only 4×6-inch snapshots, and as mentioned, its cost per page, though competitive with those of other gadgets like this, is a bit high. In other words, each photo is somewhat expensive, compared to having them run off at the neighborhood drugstore.

Even so, the Kodak Dock is very easy to use—which is what a lot of people consider important—and it turns out decent-looking photographs. As you read on, you’ll see that it also comes with several impressive and useful features, such as smartphone charging. In no way, however, is the Kodak Dock as handy as a full-featured photo-centric inkjet AIO that can print documents and photos at various sizes, as well as scan and make copies. You can find several good ones, such as the Canon Pixma TS6020 Wireless Inkjet All-in-One, for about the same price as the Kodak Dock.

But then, the Pixma TS6020 and its ilk are not nearly as easy to use, nor can you carry them around with you in your backpack. If finding a way to print good-looking photos simply and easily, especially from your smartphone (and perhaps on the go) is important to you, this Kodak gadget is a nifty little printer designed to do just that.

High-resolution, wide-format scanning. Scans slides, negatives, and transparencies, as well as reflective photos and artwork. Highly accurate color and detail.

CONS

Expensive. Big and heavy. Transparency unit comes uninstalled.

BOTTOM LINE

The Epson Expression 12000XL-PH is a large, tabloid-size graphics arts and photograph scanner that is compatible with a large array of media and produces excellent output.

The wide-format Epson Expression 12000XL-PH ($3429.99) is the professional photographers’ version of the Expression 12000XL-GA, an oversize professional graphic artists’ flatbed scanner. Essentially, these two machines are the same, except that the PH version comes with a transparency unit for scanning slides, transparencies, and negatives. While you can buy the scanner itself and opt for the transparency unit later, purchasing them together, in the same box, saves you about $130. Either way, its price is substantial for a flatbed scanner, but graphic artists, photographers, and desktop publishers will find the 12000XL-PH a highly accurate and quality tool for digitizing not only slides, transparencies, and film, but also photos and artwork up to tabloid-size (11 by 17 inches).Read the entire review at PCMag

Not long ago, A3 (tabloid, or 11-by-17-inch) all-in-one (AIO) printers, such as the Editors’ Choice HP OfficeJet Pro 7740, were somewhat rare, and expensive. But not anymore. One reason is that a few years ago Brother made them a staple in its Business Smart Pro line, which includes the MFC-J6930DW ($299.99) reviewed here. Like the HP model, the MFC-J6930DW comes with two big paper input trays, a single-pass auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF), and a slew of mobile connectivity features. This Brother AIO prints well overall, with competitively low running costs, and it’s relatively fast, but its graphics output could be better. Despite costing a little more upfront, but with lower running costs overall, the MFC-J6930DW is a viable alternative to the OfficeJet 7740 for low-to-moderate volume printing in a small or micro office or workgroup.Read the entire review at PCMag

]]>http://commtechwatch.com/?feed=rss2&p=30040The World’s Smallest All-in-One Printer – HP’s DeskJet 3755 All-in-One Inkjet Printerhttp://commtechwatch.com/?p=3001
http://commtechwatch.com/?p=3001#respondFri, 04 Aug 2017 17:26:45 +0000http://commtechwatch.com/?p=3001All of the major makers of inkjet printers offer at least one entry-level all-in-one (AIO) that not only prints, but also makes copies and can scan. A few of these models, such as Brother’s MFC-J480DW, also fax. All of the models in this class boast compact sizes and weights, for use in cramped environments such as home offices and school dormitories, and most are list-priced under $100, even if it’s just a penny under, like in the case of the Canon Pixma TS5020 Wireless.

The Pixma TS5020 lists on Canon’s site for $99.99, but, as we wrote this, it was on sale on both Canon’s site and elsewhere for $69.99, which is the list price for the printer we’re reviewing here today, HP’s DeskJet 3755 All-in-One. The DeskJet is new enough, though, that it still sells for that price on most sites. While $69.99 is the lowest list price for an inkjet AIO we could find during our research, some entry-level machines, such as the Epson Expression Home XP-440 Small-in-One, have been on the market long enough that they sell for slightly less than that after discounts. The XP-440, for instance, lists for $99.99 but sells from many online retailers for $59.99.

HP touts the DeskJet 3755 as “the world’s smallest all-in-one printer.” While the XP-440 Small-in-One is only slightly larger, as far as we can determine (and setting aside mobile AIOs), the Palo Alto company is correct: This is the smallest desktop AIO we’ve seen.

Being smaller than a bread box is not the DeskJet 3755’s only distinction. In fact, it’s not quite like any inkjet AIO we’ve seen before. It has a unique, stylish design, and it comes in more colors and color schemes than you can shake an ink tank at…

Before you get too excited, though, you should know that not all of these color schemes are available to everybody everywhere; the designs available to you depend primarily on where you shop. One, for example, was designed only for Walmart, another for Best Buy, and a few others just for selling via HP’s Web store—you get the idea.

HP also posits that this AIO was designed for millennials; and that this generation, which HP says hardly ever prints, wants a device that is compact, light, inexpensive, and simple, but with extensive support for mobile devices (primarily smartphones). Well, you do get those things with the DeskJet 3755, but you also get slow printing and copying, small-capacity ink cartridges, and high running costs, the last to the extent that using it for anything more than the occasional low-volume print job would be impractical. The one X-factor here, as you’ll see in the Cost Per Page section later on, it that this printer supports HP’s subscription Instant Ink service, which can cut down ink costs considerably.

The DeskJet 3755 is also pitched as a workable photo printer, and, while the photo-printing quality isn’t bad, those same low-volume ink tanks, slow print speeds, and high running costs make it impractical for printing anything beyond the infrequent snapshot. If, on the other hand, all you need is the occasional print, copy, or scan—and if you’re not in a hurry—it can do that. That, and its hip design and small footprint, are where the DeskJet 3755 gets its appeal, though we’ll be more enthusiastic when the price starts to come down.

Canon’s ImageClass D570 mono laser all-in-one printer produces good-looking text and passable graphics at a respectable speed for the price, but an ADF is sorely missing.

A step down from the Editors’ Choice ImageClass MF249dw, the ImageClass D570 ($229.99) is an entry-level monochrome all-in-one (AIO) laser printer designed for use in a home-based or micro office, a small workgroup, or as a personal AIO. A significant difference between the D570 and its $299 sibling is that the latter comes with an automatic document feeder (ADF) for sending multipage documents to the scanner, whereas the former does not. In testing, the MF249dw and the D570 produced similar print quality. These two small laser AIOs have much in common, making the ImageClass D570 a decent less-expensive alternative to the MF249dw as a light-duty monochrome laser AIO.Read the entire review on PCMag

A remarkably fast workhorse document scanner, the Visioneer Patriot H80 is quicker and more accurate than most of its competitors, including its slightly lower-rated, less-expensive Patriot H60 sibling—but not enough to justify a hefty price difference.

Aside from a higher price and faster scanning speeds, the Visioneer Patriot H80 ($1,595) is identical to the Editors’ Choice Visioneer Patriot H60. Both sheet-feed document scanners have the same daily duty cycles, the same size automatic document feeders (ADFs), and they come with the same software bundle. In addition, both machines are quite fast, even when scanning and saving to searchable PDF. As sheet-feed document scanners go, the Patriot H80 is one of the fastest, and it’s highly accurate, making it well-suited for medium-to-heavy volume scanning in small- or mid-size offices and workgroups, but unless you need all the speed you can possibly get, the huge price difference between it and its less-expensive sibling seems excessive.

It’s been some time (late 2012!) since Epson has updated its WorkForce Pro 4000 series of all-in-one business printers, and the new ones bear little resemblance, in terms of features, price, and appearance, to their predecessors.

The WorkForce Pro WP-4590, for example, had no Wi-Fi connectivity and listed for $499.99, whereas the relatively new WorkForce Pro WF-4720 All-in-One Printer—today’s review model—does support Wi-Fi and it lists for just $199.99. The earlier model was white and way larger, with a control panel dominated by myriad buttons and a keypad. The WF-4720, in contrast, is black, much smaller than the 2012 model, and equipped with a control panel that’s primarily just a color touch screen.

Part of a multi-unit release a few months ago, the WorkForce Pro WF-4720 is the smallest new 4000-series model, in terms of capacity, features, and several other key features. At the same time, Epson also released the more robust WF-4740, as well as a smaller 3000-series model, the WF-3720—which we’ll be reviewing soon. It’s important that you pay attention to their individual feature lists; what you give up for the relatively small difference in list prices among them is significant. Today’s review unit, for instance, comes with only one paper-input source and a manual-duplex-only automatic document feeder (ADF), meaning that the scanner can’t scan two-sided pages without your help. The $299.99-MSRP WF-4740, on the other hand, has two paper cassettes and a larger, auto-duplexing ADF, as well as some other significant differences.

All three WorkForce Pro models do, however, deploy Epson’s now-familiar PrecisionCore inkjet print-head technology, which Epson touts as endowed with “performance beyond laser.” That may sound like huffed-up marketing, but as we’ll get into near the end of this review, this is not an idle boast. Few printers, inkjet or laser, print as well—be it with text, graphics, or photos—as this one.

As we’ll also get into later on, it does so at fairly reasonable per-page ink costs. The numbers are not quite as low as you’d see from one of Brother’s INKvestment Business Smart or Business Smart Plus all-in-ones (AIOs), such as the Brother MFC-J6535DW, or one of Epson’s own EcoTank WorkForce AIOs, such as the WorkForce ET-4550 EcoTank All-in-One. But, compared to the WF-4720, there are drawbacks to both of those. The Brother model doesn’t print as well, for one thing, while the EcoTank AIO costs significantly more. In addition, since the ET-4550 is not a WorkForce Pro machine, it comes with only two PrecisionCore print chips, instead of the four chips in the Pro models, making it slower, with slightly inferior print quality. We’ll look into all of this—print quality and running costs—a little deeper as we progress through this review.

Depending on your needs, the WF-4740 may be a better value for your home office or small office. We’ll look more closely at the differences in a moment. Meanwhile, if you don’t print or copy a lot—say, no more than 500 to 1,000 pages per month—and you don’t scan a lot of two-sided multipage documents, the WF-4720 will be an excellent printer choice. It’s small, light, and easy to install and put to work, and it’s not overly expensive to use. Its running costs are, in fact, lower than some close competitors, such as the Canon Maxify MB2120 Wireless Home Office Inkjet and the HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 All-in-One, and it prints a little better than both. The main thing that held it back from becoming an Editors’ Choice is its lack of an auto-duplexing ADF. (Of the two other machines just mentioned, the WorkForce ET-4550 EcoTank also lacks one, but the OfficeJet Pro 6978 has the goods.)

Epson’s WorkForce Pro WF-4730 all-in-one inkjet is fast and capable, and it supports just about every mobile connectivity feature available, but an auto-duplexing ADF would make it more attractive.

Positioned between two Editors’ Choice recipients, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4720 and the WorkForce Pro WF-4740, the WorkForce Pro WF-4730 ($199.99) is a step up from the former and a step down from the latter. Like its siblings, the WF-4730 inkjet all-in-one (AIO) printer produces great output, and it is fast for its class. It provides higher paper input capacity than the WF-4720, but its automatic document feeder (ADF) is smaller than the WF-4740’s, and it’s incapable of automatic two-sided scanning, whereas the WF-4740’s auto-duplexing ADF scans, copies, and faxes two-sided multipage documents without intervention. As is the case with its siblings, the WF-4730 is a highly capable solution for moderate-volume printing and copying in a small workgroup or micro office, but it lacks the auto-duplexing ADF of the WF-4740 and the lower price of the WF-4720.Read entire review at PCMag

The Xerox Duplex Travel Scanner may be a bit sluggish, but it scans two-sided pages in a single pass, and it’s highly accurate, making it a terrific choice for low-volume scanning on the road.

The Xerox Duplex Travel Scanner ($119.99) is similar to the Editors’ Choice Visioneer RoadWarrior X3 in features and functionality, except that the former can scan two-sided documents without you having to turn them over manually. Otherwise, both portable document scanners work without power cables, and they’re both exceptionally easy to use. There are some other much more sophisticated portable document scanners out there, such as the $300 Epson WorkForce ES-300W Portable Wireless Duplex Document Scanner, but if all you need is to scan relatively short documents to your laptop on the road, the Duplex Travel Scanner is a terrific alternative to the RoadWarrior X3—especially if those documents are two-sided.

]]>http://commtechwatch.com/?feed=rss2&p=29860Microsoft’s Attractive, Ergonomic Wireless Comfort Desktop 5050 Keyboard and Mousehttp://commtechwatch.com/?p=2983
http://commtechwatch.com/?p=2983#respondFri, 14 Jul 2017 17:55:24 +0000http://commtechwatch.com/?p=2983If you, like us, spend a good portion of your life banging on computers, the first thing you do after buying a new PC is replace the stock USB keyboard, and mouse that comes with it. Upgrading to aftermarket peripherals such as, say, the Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5050 review unit we have here, not only improves the aesthetics of your desktop and increases comfort, but can also be a wise investment in the well-being of your wrists and hands.

Compared to some other keyboard and mouse combos we’ve looked at recently, including the Logitech Performance MK850 Wireless Mouse and Keyboard Combo ($80), Microsoft’s Desktop 5050 is relatively inexpensive. It lists for $70, but we found it at several outlets for $50. While the Logitech MK850 specializes in allowing you to pair with multiple devices simultaneously, the Desktop 5050, in addition to its ergonomic design, comes with several additional keys for assigning shortcuts in Windows. Does it, however, provide enough comfort and convenience to warrant laying out half a C-note?

The Visioneer Patriot H60 scans quickly and accurately, and it has a huge daily duty cycle and a comprehensive software bundle.

With speed ratings similar to the HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow 7000 s3 Sheet-Feed Scanner, a top pick, the Visioneer Patriot H60 ($1,095) scans fast and accurately, and it comes with a significantly higher daily duty cycle. It’s also one of the fastest scanners in this class that PCMag has reviewed recently, especially when saving to searchable PDF, but it costs $200 more than the HP model. It comes with an impressive software bundle that includes Visioneer’s easy-to-use OneTouch scanning interface utility, as well as state-of-the-art optical character recognition (OCR) and document-management programs. In most ways, it outpaces the HP ScanJet 7000, more than enough to compensate for the higher price, making it our Editors’ Choice as a moderate-to-high-volume document scanner for small and medium-size offices and workgroups.

A behemoth of a color laser all-in-one, the Xerox VersaLink C405/DN prints well, is respectably fast, and comes with a ton of features, but lower running costs would make it a better value.

Comparable in price with the Editors’ Choice Dell Color Smart Multifunction Printer S3845cdn, the Xerox VersaLink C405/DN ($979) all-in-one(AIO) prints well and reasonably fast. It comes with a wealth of features, including a single-pass, auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) for unassisted, two-sided scanning, as well as paper input expandability, high-yield toner cartridges, and near-field communication (NFC) for printing from smartphones and tablets. With print, scan, copy, and fax functionality, the C405/DN is a capable AIO printer overall, but it’s a little slower than the Dell S3845cdn, and its running costs are higher (especially for color prints). Even so, it’s a good fit for low-to-moderate-volume printing and copying in small- to medium-size offices and workgroups.

Brother MFC-L8610CDW Review

Here in 2017, we’ve looked at a healthy bunch of midrange color laser all-in-one (AIO) printers that are quite capable. Here’s another, and we can summarize it in a sentence: It’s a solid effort, but this model’s a questionable step down if you look at its step-up sibling.

Brother’s $529.99-list MFC-L8610CDW is a less-expensive iteration (by about $50) of the MFC-L8900CDW reviewed some time ago at our sister site, PCMag.com. While both machines print reasonably well and at a good clip, with the MFC-L8610CDW you give up a lot for that $50. Depending on what and how you print, that may matter a little, or a whole bunch.

But first, let’s look at what these two Brother AIOs have in common. Both are loaded with features, including identical networking options and several ways to print from and scan to your mobile devices, as well as more than a handful of cloud-service access choices. They both come with state-of-the-art document-management software, and each delivers competitive running costs for its class. Nowadays, though, running costs for entry-level and midrange laser printers are high compared to most other competing product types. That includes higher-end, higher-volume color laser AIOs, such as the Dell Color Smart Multifunction Printer S3845cdn, or business inkjets made to compete with color lasers, such as the HP PageWide Pro 477dw. (We’ll look at how these AIOs’ cost-per-page figures compare to those of today’s Brother model later on.)

In a lot of ways—print speed, connectivity features, software bundle, and security—the MFC-L8610CDW and the MFC-L8900CDW are alike. The primary difference between them is that the higher-end model’s ADF is larger and it supports auto-duplexing (automatic feeding of two-sided documents for scanning and copying), but the MFC-L8610CDW’s ADF does not. This may not seem like much, but if you copy, scan, or fax stacks of two-sided documents often, the feature is well worth the additional $50. Add to that a higher paper-input capacity, access to larger toner cartridges, and the lower running costs you gain with the MFC-L8900CDW, and it seems to us that spending the additional $50 is a no-brainer.

Normally, we’d add here that if you don’t think you’ll be using the auto-duplexer, then by all means, take the $50 savings. However, given the price and capacity of this AIO, we’re not sure, in this case, that this is good advice. If you’ve ever scanned, copied, or faxed a bunch of two-sided documents, you know how tedious and time-consuming it can be. Hence, while this is a highly capable midrange color laser AIO, we must include the caveat that, unless you’re absolutely sure that you don’t (and won’t) need auto-duplexing, you should be looking at the higher-end model.

The Kodak ScanMate i1150WN is a bit slow for the price, but this scanner comes with numerous network and other connectivity options and terrific software, and OCR accuracy is above average.

The Kodak ScanMate i1150WN ($650) from Kodak Alaris is similar in many ways to its previous iteration, the Kodak ScanMate i1150, except that it supports both wired and wireless networking. It’s not, however, as fast as some network-ready scanners we have reviewed, including the Editors’ Choice Brother ImageCenter ADS-3600W and Epson’s significantly less expensive WorkForce ES-500W Wireless Duplex Document Scanner. Even though the i1150WN is not lickety-split, it’s plenty fast enough for many micro office and workgroup environments, and it comes with slick and easy-to-use software, making it a good choice for low-to-moderate network document scanning, especially for use at the front desk in medical and dental offices.Read entire review at PCMag

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4740 ($299.99) is a more robust version of the Editors’ Choice WF-4720, a business-centric inkjet all-in-one (AIO) printer. For the difference in price (about $100), you get twice the paper input capacity, a larger automatic document feeder (ADF) that supports two-sided scanning, and a bigger color touch screen. Like its less-expensive sibling, it prints well and quickly, and comes with a wide range of connectivity options.

The WF-4740 is more expensive than our current Editors’ Choice, the Canon Maxify MB2720 Wireless Home Office All-in-One Printer, but it’s faster, prints a little better, and comes with several additional useful features, making it our new first choice for low-to-moderate print volume in a small workgroup or micro office.

]]>http://commtechwatch.com/?feed=rss2&p=29670No PC Required with Apparent’s Doxie Q Mobile Document Scannerhttp://commtechwatch.com/?p=2963
http://commtechwatch.com/?p=2963#respondThu, 22 Jun 2017 17:51:16 +0000http://commtechwatch.com/?p=2963The Apparent Doxie Q ($299.99), like the IRIScan Anywhere 5, is an uber-portable document scanner that, unlike much of the competition, doesn’t need to be attached to a PC to do its job. The primary differences between the Doxie Q and the Anywhere 5 are that the former comes with an automatic document feeder (ADF), where the latter requires you to feed it manually, one page at a time. On the other hand, the IRIScan model has a much more robust, modern, and complete software bundle, while, in addition to Windows and MacOS, the Doxie Q also provides an app for uploading (and processing) your scans to Apple’s iOS, so you can use it with an iPhone or iPad. The real appeal here is that both allow you to scan virtually anywhere, but the Doxie Q has an ADF and a heartier, replaceable battery so it can scan longer.

]]>http://commtechwatch.com/?feed=rss2&p=29630Massive Tabloid (and other) Output for Large Workgroups – HP’s PageWide Pro 750dwhttp://commtechwatch.com/?p=2960
http://commtechwatch.com/?p=2960#respondThu, 22 Jun 2017 17:30:05 +0000http://commtechwatch.com/?p=2960Let’s say that your organization (or your very, very busy home office) needs to churn out 20,000 or so high-quality prints each month, and some of them (perhaps all of them) must be tabloid-size (11×17 inches). You’re considering purchasing one of Brother’s Business Smart Plus all-in-one (AIO) printers—maybe our highly capable Editors’ Choice pick, MFC-J6935DW, or perhaps the HP Officejet Pro 7740 Wide-Format All-in-One. And why not? Both are logical choices: They print exceptional tabloid-size pages, and they both have maximum monthly duty cycles of 30,000 pages—10,000 pages more than what you need to print, right?

Well, not so fast.

Let’s start with that 30,000-page monthly duty cycle. The more important number—the one not printed on the box—is the recommended monthly page volume, which on the Brother machine we mentioned above is up to 2,000 pages monthly. The Officejet’s recommended volume is up to 1,500 pages per month. As well-built as these machines are, if you actually pushed them to their maximum monthly duty cycle rating each month, you’d likely be shortening their service life. But that’s not all.

Some rough napkin math: Printing 20,000 pages per month, excluding weekends and holidays, comes out to about 1,000 pages per workday. (30,000 pages per month equals about 1,500 pages per day.) If you used one of these midrange business printers to churn out these kinds of volumes, day in and day out, you’d have to fill their paper drawers several times a day, and—especially if you’re printing wide-format, which uses about twice the ink as a standard letter-size page, all else being equal—you’d be changing the ink cartridges twice a day, perhaps more. If you truly require this kind of volume, especially on tabloid-size pages, you need a machine designed to handle this much printing. And that is where a model like the $2,199 HP PageWide Pro 750dw we’re reviewing here today comes in.

Yes, that’s a lot of money for a printer, especially an inkjet printer. But as you read on, you’ll see that, first, HP PageWide printers are not ordinary inkjet printers, and the PageWide Pro 750dw is no ordinary PageWide machine.

In fact, given its size, volume, and some other specs, we think that it’s better suited to HP’s PageWide Enterprise line, like the HP PageWide Enterprise Color 556dn reviewed at our sister site, PCMag, a while back. The PageWide Pro 750dw is, for example, designed to support up to 40 networked users, rather than the five or so users recommended for the smaller inkjets we’ve been talking about.

In fact, the PageWide Pro 750dw is much more in line with a high-volume color laser printer, such as the Dell Color Smart Printer S5840Cdn we reviewed late last year. A primary difference between it and the 750dw is, of course, that the HP model can print at sizes up to tabloid, which is one reason the PageWide model costs so much. High-volume laser-class printers that can do wide-format, such as the OKI C831n ($1,699 MSRP) and OKI C831dn ($1,929), and wide-format laser alternatives (such as our 750dw), typically have high price tags. But the good news is, at least in the case of the HP model, is that its running costs are reasonable once you’ve bought the printer.

In addition, the PageWide Pro 750dw is highly expandable. You can boost the paper capacity, as we’ll discuss later on, over 4,000 sheets. Plus, according to HP, in the fall of 2017 numerous copier-like finishing options (among them a stapler and a collator) will come available.

The PageWide Pro 750dw is an immense, and immensely well-built, volume printer meant to endure blizzards of wide-format printing month after month. Our only real quibble with it is that it’s somewhat expensive. But then, if you plan to print upward of 10,000 pages each month, you need a Humvee, not a Chevy Silverado.

Much slower than Xerox’s ratings. Lag time between scanning and saving to searchable PDF is significant.

BOTTOM LINE

For well under the cost of several similarly rated document scanners, the Xerox DocuMate 6440 scans more than fast enough for the price and it’s highly accurate.

We’ve reviewed several sheet-feed document scanners with speed ratings above 50 pages per minute (ppm) when scanning in one-sided mode, and over 100 images per minute (ipm) in two-sided mode. But we haven’t tested many with ratings in this range that are comparable in price to the Xerox DocuMate 6440 ($495). In testing, it, like several other similarly rated document scanners, it didn’t come close to Xerox’s published ratings, especially when scanning to searchable PDF. But it does outpace similarly priced models and it scans quite acurately, making it our latest top pick for moderate-to-high-volume scanning in a small office or workgroup.

]]>http://commtechwatch.com/?feed=rss2&p=29580Superb Print Quality and Low Cost Per Page with Brother’s HL-L8360CDW Color Laserhttp://commtechwatch.com/?p=2951
http://commtechwatch.com/?p=2951#respondWed, 07 Jun 2017 18:15:59 +0000http://commtechwatch.com/?p=2951The Brother HL-L8360CDW ($399.99), a color laser printer, is essentially the recent Editors’ Choice Brother HL-L8260CDW on steroids. The HL-L8360CDW gives you greater expandability, twice the memory, a higher duty cycle, access to higher-yield toner cartridges, lower running costs, greater security, and a few additional functions, such as near-field communication (NFC) and a color touch screen. Like the HL-L8260CDW, it prints well and at a fast clip. All of this for just $70 more makes the HL-L8360CDW a better value, and therefore our latest top choice for a moderate-to-heavy volume color laser printer for a micro or small office or workgroup.